Powering of an implantable medical therapy delivery device using far field radiative powering at multiple frequencies

• US 9,402,994 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2012
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LivaNova USA, Inc. (LivaNova Plc)
• Original Assignee: Cyberonics, Inc
• Inventors: Rowell, Jonathan D., Chow, Eric Y.
• Primary Examiner(s): Heller, Tammie K
• Application Number:
  US13/434,240
• Publication Number:
  US 20130018440A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,587 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/0551 Spinal or peripheral nerve electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/0556 Cuff electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3605 Implantable neurostimulators for stimulating central or peripheral nerve system
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37211 Means for communicating with stimulators
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37223 Circuits for electromagnetic coupling
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3787 from an external energy source

Abstract

A particular implantable device may include one or more antennas configured to receive a first far field radiative signal and a second far field radiative signal. The one or more antennas may be configured to receive the first far field radiative signal in a first frequency band and to receive the second far field radiative signal in a second frequency band. The implantable device may include a voltage rectifier configured to rectify the received first far field radiative signal and the received second far field radiative signal to provide a rectified voltage signal. The implantable device may further include a charge storage element operative to receive the rectified voltage signal and to store charge responsive to the rectified voltage signal. The implantable device may also include a therapy delivery unit powered by the charge storage element. The therapy delivery unit may be operative to deliver a therapy to a patient.

Claims

1. An implantable medical device comprising:

at least one antenna, the at least one antenna configured to receive a first far field radiative signal in a first frequency band and to receive a second far field radiative signal in a second frequency band;

a voltage rectifier configured to rectify the received first far field radiative signal and the received second far field radiative signal to provide a rectified voltage signal;

a charge storage element operative to receive the rectified voltage signal and to store charge responsive to the rectified voltage signal;

a therapy delivery unit powered by the charge storage element, the therapy delivery unit operative to deliver a therapy to a patient; and

a threshold detector coupled to the charge storage element, wherein the threshold detector is configured to;

detect whether a charge stored at the charge storage element satisfies a threshold; and

in response to detecting that the charge stored at the charge storage element satisfies the threshold, send a signal to the therapy delivery unit to cause the therapy delivery unit to generate an electrical stimulation signal to deliver the therapy to the patient.

2. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the voltage rectifier comprises a first voltage rectifier configured to rectify the received first far field radiative signal and a second voltage rectifier configured to rectify the received second far field radiative signal.

3. The implantable medical device of claim 2, wherein the voltage rectifier further comprises a summing network configured to sum a first rectified voltage signal output by the first voltage rectifier with a second rectified voltage signal output by the second voltage rectifier and to provide the rectified voltage signal to the charge storage element.

4. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the charge storage element includes at least one of a capacitor, a capacitor array, a rechargeable battery, or a thin film battery.

5. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the at least one antenna is one of a dipole antenna, a monopole antenna, a serpentine antenna, a slot antenna, a patch antenna, an inverted-F antenna (IFA), a helical antenna, a fractal antenna, or a loop antenna.

6. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the first far field radiative signal and the second far field radiative signal each have a frequency in a frequency band centered at one of approximately 433 MHz and 900 MHz, respectively, approximately 433 MHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively, approximately 433 MHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively, approximately 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively, approximately 900 MHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively, or approximately 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively.

7. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the first far field radiative signal and the second far field radiative signal have a frequency within a range of approximately 100 MHz to approximately 5.8 GHz.

8. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the first far field radiative signal is transmitted over a first distance of at least twice a first wavelength of the first far field radiative signal, and wherein the second far field radiative signal is transmitted over a second distance of at least twice a second wavelength of the second far field radiative signal.

9. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first far field radiative signal or the second far field radiative signal is a pulsed signal.

10. The implantable medical device of claim 9, wherein the pulsed signal has a duty cycle of 10% or less.

11. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the at least one antenna includes a first antenna configured to receive the first far field radiative signal in the first frequency band and a second antenna configured to receive the second far field radiative signal in the second frequency band.

12. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the at least one antenna is a multiband antenna configured to receive the first far field radiative signal in the first frequency band and to receive the second far field radiative signal in the second frequency band.

13. The implantable medical device of claim 12, wherein the first far field radiative signal is a first pulsed signal and the second far field radiative signal is a second pulsed signal and wherein the first pulsed signal and the second pulsed signal are interleaved.

14. The implantable medical device of claim 1, further comprising a control unit configured to receive the signal from the threshold detector, the signal configured to indicate that the threshold has been satisfied, wherein the threshold is satisfied based on the threshold detector detecting that an amount of charge needed to deliver the therapy to the patient is stored at the charge storage element.

15. The implantable medical device of claim 1, further comprising control circuitry configured to encode data by modulating energy backscattered responsive to the first far field radiative signal, responsive to the second far field radiative signal, or both.

16. A system comprising:

a first external transmitter configured to transmit a first far field radiative signal;

a second external transmitter configured to transmit a second far field radiative signal; and

an implantable medical device comprising;

at least one antenna, the at least one antenna configured to receive a first far field radiative signal in a first frequency band and to receive a second far field radiative signal in a second frequency band;

a voltage rectifier configured to rectify the received first far field radiative signal and the received second far field radiative signal to provide a rectified voltage signal;

a charge storage element operative to store a charge responsive to the rectified voltage signal;

a therapy delivery unit powered by the charge storage element, the therapy delivery unit operative to deliver a therapy to a patient; and

a threshold detector coupled to the charge storage element, wherein the threshold detector is configured to;

detect whether a charge stored at the charge storage element satisfies a threshold; and

in response to detecting that the charge stored at the charge storage element satisfies the threshold, send a signal to the therapy delivery unit to cause the therapy delivery unit to generate an electrical stimulation signal to deliver the therapy to the patient.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first far field radiative signal is a first pulsed signal and the second far field radiative signal is a second pulsed signal, wherein the first pulsed signal and the second pulsed signal are interleaved.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first pulsed signal and the second pulsed signal each have an average transmission power of 1 watt or less and an instantaneous transmission power of 5 watts or less.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein a distance between the implantable medical device and each of the first external transmitter and the second external transmitter is greater than 0.1 meters.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the first far field radiative signal and the second far field radiative signal each have a free-space path loss that is proportional to a free-space path distance squared.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the first far field radiative signal and the second far field radiative signal each have a frequency within a range of approximately 100 MHz to approximately 5.8 GHz.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the first far field radiative signal and the second far field radiative signal each have a frequency in a frequency band centered at one of approximately 433 MHz and 900 MHz, respectively, approximately 433 MHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively, approximately 433 MHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively, approximately 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively, approximately 900 MHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively, or approximately 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein the therapy delivery unit is a pulse generator operative to generate an electrical stimulation signal to stimulate a target tissue of a patient.

24. The system of claim 16, wherein the first far field radiative signal is a first pulsed signal and the second far field radiative signal is a second pulsed signal and wherein the first pulsed signal and the second pulsed signal are interleaved.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the first pulsed signal and the second pulsed signal each have an average transmission power of 1 watt or less and an instantaneous transmission power of 5 watts or less.

26. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one antenna includes a first antenna configured to receive the first far field radiative signal in the first frequency band and a second antenna configured to receive the second far field radiative signal in the second frequency band.

27. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one antenna is a multiband antenna configured to receive the first far field radiative signal in the first frequency band and to receive the second far field radiative signal in the second frequency band.